Special for the Armenian Weekly The Armenian government ratified the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) in 1993 and is periodically reviewed by the CEDAW Committee to gain certain their policies and programs are in line with the convention,which sets legally binding obligations for States parties and international standards for gender equality. Armenian civil society representatives with colleagues from IWRAW Asia Pacific after their lunch briefing with UN Committee members in Geneva In March 2014 Armenian State parties submitted a country report to the Committee. In response, civil society representatives worked diligently on shadow and alternative reports over the course of the whole year to fact check and bring to light human rights abuses based on their observations, and which required months of research,writing, editing, and compiling data from various NGOs working on gender issues in Armenia. We all spent tireless hours on the reports,feeling a sense of responsibility to accurately represent the situation on the ground and push for reform to create positive change for the country. Following the submission of the reports, the CEDAW Committee is tasked with consulting representatives from government, or international organizations,and civil society at the UN [...]
Source: armenianweekly.com